Nuno Morgandinho

A great well renowned author was once at a conference and one person in the audience asked: “You are such a great author, I love all your books, they are fantastic.. I wish I could write like you.. please tell me.. what kind of pencil do you use?”

It’s a great story because it illustrates that you shouldn’t start by focusing on the tool but rather by obsessing about knowing your users and know what problem(s) you are trying to solve.

I know what to build, I just need to choose the platform

Until you’ve interviewed between 20–30 users you really don’t know your users and you’re building something based on hypothesis and assumptions. Progress at your own risk.

If however you’ve somehow managed to go through the necessary user research to build something valuable you’re now stepping into execution.

Execution is bound by the team and you should aim to first pick the best team rather than deciding on a platform and then choosing a team that works with that platform. This is best illustrated by considering these opposing views:

“I know we should use X — what are some good X people?”

“I have a good team — what does my team recommend we use?”

I would argue that the second statement is a much smarter approach to building something valuable.

Evaluating your team’s recommendation

You’ve gone through user research and you also have a team in place to work on your product. The team is pushing for a particular platform. Here are some concerns you should have in mind:

Ownership/Autonomy

You want to have ownership (or at least a way-out option) of the platform you choose so that your project doesn’t become dependent on a single platform/supplier.

Multi-lingual

You want a platform where you can make the contents available in multiple languages.

Ease of Use/Usability

You want a platform that is simple to use and according to the latest Web standards.